Argent Energy
What is Argent Energy? The life blood of Hell, the energy that grants Devils the power to bring Hell's Greater Purpose into being. Argent is the processed suffering of the damned. The anguish and horror inflicted on souls is extracted and processed via ancient and secret magics. Impurities, like hope and faith, are removed and abandoned, and the tortured emotions are distilled into a powerful and versatile energy. Argent serves several functions in Hell, from granting abilities to high ranking Devils, morphing Hell's landscape for construction, training lesser devils in the arts of combat and torture, to imbuing artifacts with profane magic. In Hell, order and power are the essence of existence, and Argent is the tangible manifestation of what it means to hold power and maintain order. What are Argent's effects on magic? Spells and spell-like abilities with the lawful or evil descriptor are enhanced by the ambient Argent that flows through Hell, while spells and spell-like abilities with the chaotic or good descriptor are impeded, due to how Argent disrupts these energies. How is Argent collected? It has been said that pain is relative, that one person could go through a hundred trials with little suffering while another could be crippled by a single tragic event. This observation is brought to a grim reality in the depths of Hell's vast torturing facilities. When a soul is tortured, it produces emotions and energy that can be harvested and processed, when the processing of this energy is complete the end result is what is called “Argent Energy”. Not all souls suffer equally; while one person could produce high levels of emotional torment, other souls might not yield the same amount. Hell and it's Devils have accounted for this discrepancy between souls, and have maintained to only measure the net output of Argent from a collection of tortured souls. Whether the demands for Argent require two thousand souls or two million souls, the Net Argent Production is all that matters. It should be noted that even individual souls that have a high production rate, the levels of energy they release is so faint that most beings (even lower Devils) wouldn't be able to perceive these low levels of energy. It requires vast amounts of souls being tortured in unison, and extremely sensitive artifacts and magic to detect the production of Argent. Argent, as a power source, cannot be stored in a battery for later use. Emotions of pain and torment are fleeting and fickle, and so the only way to have a reliable source of Argent is to have souls on-call for torture at a moment's notice. Souls that have been damned are both the generators of Argent and their means if storage. Souls are organized and collected, imprisoned under the control of a single Devil, and held in a private holding facility for eternity. When the Devil in charge requires power, such as to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability, the Devil's desire for power will bring about a demand for Argent Energy. The souls will then be tortured in a way that is most effective and economical, and their suffering is processed and distilled into Argent. The supply of Argent is directly correlated with the demands of the Devil in dominion of the souls. If the demands of the Devil exceed the supply they currently have control, the spell or spell-like ability will fail. Not all Devils have access to Argent, or the means of producing it. But all Devils desire to acquire it, and the possession of Argent is one of the many incentives for climbing Hell's hierarchy. What happens to the Souls? A soul under constant torture will eventually be obliterated by the strain. To minimize waste and make Argent collection efficient, souls are only put under extreme anguish when the demand for Argent rises. Souls not under direct torture are left alone in their holding chambers, with small amounts of Argent being feed to them to keep them alive and prepare them for when their suffering is needed. Eventually, Souls subjected to the natural environment of Hell will begin to transform, and over the course of time these souls will slowly mutate, loosing their memories, their identity, and their purpose for existence. The need for a purpose will be replaced by the will of Hell itself, and eventually the soul is transformed into a Lemure. Lemures, as well as other Devils, do not produce Argent; so when a soul is converted into a lesser devil, a replacement will be found to fill the demands for Argent. How is Argent traded? The exchange and trade of Argent is common among the higher echelons of Hell's population, with power and influence in a constant cycle of bribes, deals, and betrayal. Because Argent cannot be stored, what is traded is not the energy itself but the means to produce it. When Devils wants to exchange Argent, they communicate in terms of how much Argent can be produced in a certain amount of time. For example, 10 Argent Per Week is the asking price for a Devil to lend his expertise to another Devil. When the deal is made, the Devil paying the Argent will gather enough souls that, under optimal operation, will yield 10 Argent Per Week. A reasonable approximate population of souls that could produce that amount of Argent would be around a Village worth of human souls; roughly forty to sixty people. These souls are then brought out of their holding cells, collected in bondage, and transported down one of Hell's many Slave Trading Routes. Once the Devil receiving the payment get's the Souls in their possession, the souls are placed in their new prison, and the torture begins again, only now for the benefit of a new Devil.